Coach owner Kathryn Pulham is new CPT President

Coach firm proprietor Kathryn Pulham has become the new Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) President, taking over from Stagecoach London Managing Director Paul Lynch.

Pulham has for many years run Cotswolds operator Pulhams Coaches alongside her husband Andy . She becomes only the second woman to be CPT President and the first to come from the coach sector for some years.

As an active member of Women in Bus and Coach, and Chair of its coach subgroup, she used her inauguration speech to share how she intends to use her time as CPT leader “to speak up for women in our industry.” 

She asked: “Where are the middle and senior managers rising through the ranks? There simply are not enough. And that is a shame for a modern, public-facing industry in 2026.”

Illustrating that the industry holds opportunity for everyone, she studied psychology with an ambition to enter clinical practice. From graduation, she worked with people facing addiction, mental health challenges, and homelessness. Her professional direction changed upon meeting her husband. “I embraced the opportunity to run the company together, and I quickly realised what makes the coach industry so special. It is because you have to be able to turn your hand to anything.”

 Pulham has called upon CPT members to assist in providing data that can help shape government policy on coach and bus.“When you are asked for it, provide data,” she told operators.” Data means evidence – and you cannot build a winning case without compelling evidence.”